UK team named as contender for Bakery World Cup

The UK will have a tense wait to find out if its team will progress to the Bakery World Cup 2012 as a wild card, after narrowly missing a guaranteed slot at the European heat this week.

The UK was named as the ‘contender’ team from Western Europe in the Louis Lesaffre Cup European selection round, held at the Sirha exhibition in Lyon.

The team – captain, Mickael Jahan (Viennese Pastry category), Wayne Caddy (Bread), and Steven Salt (Artistic Piece) – saw the top three places awarded to Sweden, The Netherlands, and Poland – which guaranteed them a spot in the final.

Of the five contender teams picked from four international selection rounds, Europe, America, Africa Mediterranean and Asia-Pacific, one team will be chosen in June 2011, to go through to the final at Europain in Paris next year.

UK team coach Sara Autton, of Fermex International, said: “We have to assume we’re going through, or we will lose six valuable months of training. The team is already thinking about what they can do for the final and what they need to work on.”

The feedback from the international panel of judges was that the UK was very close to having gone through to the final, so was still in with a great chance of being picked as the wild card later this year. Autton added she was very proud of how the team had worked together and improved in such a short space of time.